Jeff, I think you're the first guy I know of who has ever addressed the time you so aptly refer to as 'The Lull'. On a personal note, I had just left a job at WPOC in Baltimore at the end of 1980 and moved across the USA to take an on-air job at an AM in Seattle (Kirkland) Washington. I can recall quite well that it was a 'blah' period. One possible explanation that comes to mind as I look back on those days, is that radio itself was entering into its period of non-creativity. Jocks had to stick to the liner cards, were not allowed to ad-lib, and the playlists really started tightening up. This was also when research began overtaking 'gut intuition' when it came to making programming decisions, and above all, the great heritage AM music formats were dropping like flies. Your comments are very interesting and let's see if some other folks would like to weigh in on the subject.
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